School girls are more actively involved thanks to this charity.
Girls Active is a new charity funded by Sport England, which helps motivate and build girls’ confidence in physical activity. The Girls Active programme aims to make a positive difference by improving girls’ attitude towards sport. Female teachers and students work together to change the old perspective of girls’ fitness levels. This includes extra curricular activities and trips to new sports and competitions. This charity has an amazing impact on girls in the UK. Research has shown that by the time girls are 7 they are already less active than boys. This gets worse once girls get to secondary-age. There are more barriers on their participation than for boys so Girls Active identifies what is holding the girls back. Teachers pick girls from each year to be a GLAM girl, motivate them, run extra curricular activities and much more.
The charity hopes to help the girls who lack confidence or are just inactive. Two million more women than men are not involved in any sport. However, about thirteen million women and girls in England want to play more sport. The Girls Active scheme will hopefully help them accomplish this goal.
At Chantry Middle School they haven’t just included the teachers and students, they held a free netball evening in which a female family member (over the age of 16) could come along with the child and play netball.
We have interviewed teachers from Chantry to find out what they think.
We started with Miss L Mckenzie, who regularly attended the sessions because her year 7 girls were very enthusiastic. She thinks that Girls Active has improved girls’ fitness. She pointed out that this programme has opened opportunities, including trampoline sessions at the high school. It also encouraged family members to join in with the fun. Students from year 5 – year 8 have been working together and Miss McKenzie thought it was great that some of the older children were able to run the sessions, for example zumba.
We interviewed the two teachers who led the club when it first started. First we interviewed Miss K Scott, who brought the scheme from her previous school. She thinks it has increased girls’ participation, self confidence in front of their peers and fitness le
vels. She would like more year 5 students to get involved. When she first came, some girls did nearly every club and some were afraid of joining. Miss K Johnson thinks it has been a great opportunity for girls to sample different sports in one club.
Students from the school have been very enthusiastic about this new activity. Ella and Keira from Year 6 are two of the Glam leaders and have enjoyed working with girls, taking control and creating, games for other girls to try.
By Gabrielle and Emily, Y7
